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Look for an appartment with both of you guys. Start slowly... buy a mac pro and a DAW and UAD.

Make some tunes and think about what you miss.... Probably a Soundcard and some decent monitors.

Just build on the studio slowly so youll really buy what you need. Having too much money could be disadvantage because you can buy that much you dont even know what youre buying. You're asking for somebodys advice but instead of doing that. Make tunes and think about what you miss and what you really want.

Saves a lot money 2 imo.

PS : Decent studio doesn't mean good tunes.

Rendr wrote:
Yeah I do pretty fuckin lucky and relise 95% of people at my age wouldnt have the chance to do this

Which is exatly why you should put a payment on a house.

Think about it.

Now is the best time to invest in propperty - in a few years time when the recession turns around you'll make a mint on it.

And like others have said - no point buying somthing you're not sure you need.

Personally - id buy some nice monitors (if you dont allready own some) and some software and take it from there. You'll get more out of what you do buy in the end that way aswell - as you'll know why you actually bought the thing and what it can do that you can't do currently.

ok if i was gonna do something like this though:

1. location - i'd stay close to a big city like london (where more musicians are going to need your service) so i'd look for a rural location that's a bit off the beaten path from there, but not a long drive like another country would be.

2. soundproofing and proper acoustic treatment.

3. monitoring room, vocal booth, band room, lounge

4. microphones, pop screens, cables, and house instruments (drumkit etc)

5. mixing console, converters , monitors, rack gear

6. savings for unexpected expenses, monthly utility bills, property taxes etc

7. advertising capital

it's going to add up quickly and the reason why i said to invest in real estate or the like is so you have a steady income to keep the place open and going rather then investing the full 30,000 and then struggling to meet monthly upkeep on the place until you get enough business.

Altered State wrote:
Which is exatly why you should put a payment on a house.

Think about it.

Now is the best time to invest in propperty - in a few years time when the recession turns around you'll make a mint on it.

This.

Something to think about is that sadly there are quite a lot of people in this country who took on houses they cannot afford and are fucked right now. You can take advantage of there stupid and you can find some people who REALLY have to sell there houses and will often take way less the asking price. You got them bent over a barrel.

Fuck the studio. Spent a couple of thousand on some bits and make some bangers.

What happens when you and your mate have the obligitary falling out over drink, drugs, girls, or money, do you each claim a monitor and try cutting a Mac in half?

I wouldn't even consider investing such a large amount of cash with some buddy, even my best mate from day one ffs, at the age of 19 and certainly not on a studio.

Get what you need and only what you need slowly from computer, to DAW, to monitors and AI.

I personally in your situation would be straight down the STA booking a ticket to Australia, NZ, India, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Venezuela etc and still land back in the UK 2011ish with enough wongah to sort yourself out and a studio.

if i was a rich man nah nah etc etc....

I have to say I sincerely agree with all the points raised here.

It essentially comes down to gearlust vs rationalism.

Gearlust is seductive (and I know) but do the right thing.

I have to say that IMHO you would regret spending the lot on a studio, not least if you don't even have a proper place of your own.

Gearlust vs real life is a daily struggle, but with such large sums of money involved I couldn't tell you how strongly I suggest you do what you SHOULD, rather than what you WANT.

It's not what you want to hear but it's right. Speaking from experience here, mate.

don't spend $30k on a studio unless you really, really REALLY (REALLY!) want to be running a business. there's no other way to keep that kind of investment afloat, and otherwise you'll be sitting around with racks of gear going how does this work, again?, rather than building tunes.

regardless.

w/ that kind of $ i'd put at least 10% in savings as a rainy day fund, take out a multiple-year lease on a good commercial space in the city, do the necessary acoustic treatments, and maybe add some barefoot monitors, api 3124, a telefunken ak47 and 2 distressors to my setup.

but i do this for a living, and require very, very little of that gear to build/mix/master tunes. i could do 90% of my writing on a laptop with some nice headphones.

so basically: don't get a ton of gear unless you want to spend the necessary time to learn it all--and have a real reason to use it. otherwise, it actually WILL get in the way of your being creative.

edit-- but if you're sold on a mixing desk, i've had a lot of joy w/ the recent toft series--they've been showing in some well-equipped project studios, and their pre's are nice and robust and the eqs are quite musical; they're also surprisingly affordable.

http://www.toftaudiodesigns.com/atb32a.html

keep in mind that re-building a mix on hardware really, REALLY sucks.

Depone wrote:i have a feelin this is for a uni project

I have just done a 15 page assignment on exactly this

BUSTED

if i was you i'd probably buy some NS10s, some Genelecs, a sub, some synths, 1210s, two good mics, one good pre, an outboard reverb unit, good acoustic treatment, a big shed to set it all up in, solar panels, and spend the rest on a soundsystem

you could spend £7.5k on getting a nice realistic studio, and spend the other £7.5k on a good quality 5k soundsystem

i'd much much rather spend 'bare' money on a soundsystem than a great big selfish studio for myself and one friend. you'd not make any friends sitting at home wanking over your neve desk!

or i'd go two's up and spend the full £30,000 on a proper job soundsystem. once people hear your rig, they will want to hire it. nobody will want to hire your studio until you've worked for Radiohead

my wakenbake 2p

Not sure if you mentioned but is this going in your bedroom? If I had that money I would want to finda decent space, maybe not buy a property as some have said but a rentable accesible place (then again I'd be using mine to record and make some of that money back)

- Decent analogue desk, with high quality pre's (5-7k)
- Range of condensor mics, paired mics, dynamics (1-2k tops)
- Decent compressor, exciter, eq (1-3k)
- Cables, Tape, stationary etc (£200)
- High quality A/D D/A convertors (1-2k)
- Patch Bay (£1-200)
- P.C / Mac (1-2k)
- 2 screens (up to £1000)
- Software (£500-1000)
- Monitors + Sub (1k)
- Room treatment (2k)

That comes to what 15-20k?
you need a decent place to stash it all then

fair play for that much at 19 though, I'm the same age and I know I'd be having a lot of fun ideas right now if I knew I was spending that much on a studio.

I'd never invest in gear with that much money.

Make more money off the money, THEN buy whatever you want.

That would be smart.

cables are gonna cost WAAAAAAY more than 200 pounds. a good snake will run you half that.

Caeraphym wrote: I personally in your situation would be straight down the STA booking a ticket to Australia, NZ, India, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Venezuela etc and still land back in the UK 2011ish with enough wongah to sort yourself out and a studio.

This ^^
get a Macbook and a daw with some decent production headphones and sound card
take em travelling with you pick up some unique samples, tropical diseases, STDs along the way
If you spend a shit load on hardware it will more than likely gather dust if you're workflow is already somewhat developed.
Money wont buy you creativity

Whineo wrote:

Caeraphym wrote: I personally in your situation would be straight down the STA booking a ticket to Australia, NZ, India, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Venezuela etc and still land back in the UK 2011ish with enough wongah to sort yourself out and a studio.

This ^^
get a Macbook and a daw with some decent production headphones and sound card
take em travelling with you pick up some unique samples, tropical diseases, STDs along the way
If you spend a shit load on hardware it will more than likely gather dust if you're workflow is already somewhat developed.
Money wont buy you creativity

...well I could get a lot of acid and ket for 30k

And atm I've got the MacBook, DAW, Headphones & soundcard. I'm gonna get one of those europe train tickets for 150 euros or something to scout out some nice cheap places. And might take the advise on here and spend a little more on the property.

surely just buy a good computer, soundcard, moniters and software. i'm pretty sure skream, benga ect don't have a set up near 30k

I'd spent it on a proper sound engineer education first and not on two(!) 50" screens, which would only make sense if you would sit behind one of those custom made NEVE consoles, which were used for recording orchestras and are 2m wide and 4 meters long.
And since your initial list was so unspecific, I suppose that you REALLY need get the education first.

jade_monkey wrote:I'd spent it on a proper sound engineer education first and not on two(!) 50" screens, which would only make sense if you would sit behind one of those custom made NEVE consoles, which were used for recording orchestras and are 2m wide and 4 meters long.
And since your initial list was so unspecific, I suppose that you REALLY need get the education first.

....

I'm 3/4 way through my sound engineering course. And that eduction cost me more than two 50" screens. So your opinion is REALLY wrong.